Fair turnout in Kisumu Form One intake

At least 80 per cent of last year’s KCPE candidates got enrolment in secondary schools within Kisumu county, an education official has disclosed.

The county Director of Education Sabina Aroni says according to their projections, 20,753 out of 25,164 students selected to join various public secondary schools were admitted while another 433 out of 935 managed to get admission in private schools.

Aroni said admissions could have slightly increased this month, adding that her office is committed to ensuring that every Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) candidate who qualified for secondary school learning is admitted.

The director said no child should miss out on secondary education as the State had shouldered the burden of paying schools fees by introducing free education programme for all public day schools. “We are collaborating with the Ministry of Interior to ensure that all pupils who completed Class Eight proceed to Form One given that the State is paying Sh22,200 as day school tuition fees for each of them,” she said.

Aroni said the ministry had issued six core textbooks for each studentin public secondary schoolsunder the new textbook distribution policy programme.

The county Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association (Kessha) chairman Stephen Were has blamed the deficit in admission to laxity on the part of parents who thought the Statewouldpay full school fees for the Form One entrants.

Some candidates who scored low marks in last year’s KCPE also got discouraged from transiting into secondary education. “Some of the students performed exemplary well in the exams failed to continue just because they come from disadvantaged families,” Were said.